So I am friends with a guy whose parents took him to another country when he was a baby because his homeland was a hostile place for them. Despite not having much, this family worked their way to stability and eventually, when my friend grew up, he decided that he would dedicate his life to justice work. Knowing what it was like to be an immigrant and a refugee, my friend had a heart that went out to people deemed “the Other”. Ironically, my friend came from a minority group, but somehow found himself having to often school his own people–who knew what it was like to be oppressed–to not oppress others. I remember one time he told this story where a man of mixed heritage turned out to be the hero and the people who were supposed to be the most religious turned out to be well, jerks. They didn’t like that. And later, some of those same religious people called him the equivalent of what some people would call “nigger lover” for his open stance.

In spite of the opposition he received from some people, my friend kept pressing on. Most of the time, he would just say what he had to say hoping his point would get across and then leave. But every once in a while, he would go off or tell them about themselves. And as tensions between him and the “righteous and sanctified” mounted, the frequency with which he called them out on their garbage increased.

Well, as we all know, there is nothing a hypocrite hates more than being called out on their junk. So finally, they put a hit out him and well long story short…Jesus.  I’m talking about Jesus. I assume most people got that by now.  The WWJD should have been a clue. Anyway, I’m writing this post because I watched the Jimmy Kimmel clip below and felt pretty frustrated that  90% of these DACA opponents are 90% unreasonable. But what frustrates me most is how many people who claim Jesus are acting like the authorities that made his family refugees and the ones who sold him out and killed him. Anyway, I am not feeling very articulate right now.

So rather than say things that I will later have to repent for, I will just quote Martin Luther King Jr. who said, “There cannot be great disappointment without great love.” I know that I am a nobody in the grand scheme of things. But for what it’s worth, this nobody is very disappointed in the American experiment. We can do so much better if we just tried to live into the ideals we profess. Meanwhile we’re living like we’re in the final hours of a Black Friday sale. Victims of our own excess and trying to take our regret out on everyone else. You think immigrants, illegal or otherwise got us into this? No. America planted the seeds for this harvest from jump. As my friend who was killed taught, “you know a tree by its fruits.” And might I add, its roots.

Anyway, thanks to Jimmy Kimmel for using his platform to show us our faces. Thanks to the DACA family. And thanks to the DACA opponents for signing the video release so we can see how much work we still have to do.